Hello Leopold families. Here is some information on upcoming events at Leopold.PFO Volunteers Needed
There are a couple of particular and somewhat urgent needs on the volunteer front at Leopold. The volunteers who currently chair these positions are moving on to middle school next year, and we would like to have someone learn from them while they are still here!

Our Box Top coordinator runs our school Box Tops contests including providing flyers, class counting and tracking. We have another volunteer who does all of the counting and sorting to submit to Box Tops so this would not be part of the role. Please contact Michelle Barfield or me if you would like more information.

We are also in need of a Timber Wolf Trample fundraising coordinator. This is a great position to raise money for our school. An amazing foundation has been put in place and really is more management than fundraising. This is a very important position to our school, as we raise around $10,000 each year through these efforts. Please contact Pam Baumgartner or me if you would like more information.

*Asking questions and finding out more information does not obligate you to accept one of these roles!*

Thank you for considering offering your time and energy to keep so many important and fun programs at Leopold strong so that we can continue to support our students, staff and families through great programming!

PFO Family Meetings to Begin
Tuesday, November 11 will be our first PFO family meeting of the school year. The topic will be family and community engagement. We'll also touch base on some general PFO info as well. Please join us in the Leopold library from 7-8 pm. Spanish interpretation provided.

Attendance Matters breakfast volunteers
The Attendance Matters Breakfast is an event that Leopold school staff has hosted the past two years.  All Leopold families are invited to a family breakfast and then parents can join their children for the first 15 minutes of class.  Finally, parents return to the cafeteria to learn about attendance expectations.  The goal is to communicate attendance practices and allow parents to see that the classes are off and running at the bell.

This event is very well attended, and for that reason, we need a lot of volunteers to help run it.  We need volunteers onNovember 20thfrom5:30 to 7 pm to assist with setting up the cafeteria.  More importantly, we need volunteers on November 21st from 6:30 to 9 am to help run the breakfast.

Please considering signing up to help with this event.

Set up volunteer sign up (Nov. 20) can be found here and breakfast volunteer sign up (Nov. 21) can be found here. 

Tito's Readathlon Literacy Event
The PFO will lead an all-school literacy event, encouraging kids to read, write, and create! The kickoff, or Starting Line event will be held December 2, in the evening and the Finish Line event will be held on January 13, in the evening. Students will get to hear from guest authors and readers, participate in a book swap, and much more. 

*We are encouraging families to save any books your children are done with to bring in for the all-school book swap at our Starting Line event. A drop off box is now available in the lobby for book swap collection (please don't take books out as a swap yet, we're saving this for the literacy event).
Library Volunteers needed
Mr. Mueller, our librarian, is in need of volunteers in the Leopold library to help shelf books, etc. If you are interested, he can share a calendar sign up link with you so you can find a time that's convenient for you. This is an important request from school staff that supports all of our students. We'd love to have some parents help out in this fun and easy way. 

If you want to take a look at the calendar to see if a time might work in your schedule, please email Ben at [email protected].

Staff Grants from the PFO
This week, the PFO will be rolling our our 2014-15 staff grant program. The PFO has budgeted $5,000 to support innovative and creative ideas that our staff may have, but that are not funded through the regular school budget. If your child's classroom teacher or support staff has mentioned an exciting idea to you, please encourage them to apply for these funds. The PFO loves to see the innovate ideas that our staff wants to implement with our students!

Flu Shot Fundraiser
Flu shots are the most effective way to prevent influenza and its complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months of age or older be vaccinated annually against influenza.

The Leopold PFO is partnering with the HyVee Pharmacy in Fitchburg to offer flu shots to our community, with $4 from each shot coming back to our PFO. In order for Leopld to receive credit, please take a Flu Shot PFO Fundraiser in with you so Leopold gets credit. The coupons can be found on our blog (http://www.leopoldpfo.org/ leopold-pfo-blog) or you can pick one up on the school office.

Shots are covered by most insurances; cash price is $29.99. The fundraiser runs through December 31, 2014.
Open Schoolhouse Continues
Come to Leopold from 6pm-7:30 on Tuesday nights. Partnering with various nonprofits in the area, Open School House will now offer at least four separate opportunities for students and families to participate in. These classes will run for three week sessions, focusing on either Physical Activity, Education, Life Skills, and Leopold Family Sessions, an opportunity to interact with principals, teachers, and help guide the direction of our school. At the end of every set of sessions, we will host a large Party Night for all the families, before starting a new set of sessions. This month's programming includes:
Basketball Camp: Fitchburg Rec is hosting four weeks of basketball drills and games appropriate for all elementary-age children. Parents are welcome to participate as well.
Learning While Playing Together: The Fitchburg Public Library will hold family-based learning activities to help students gain new tools for literacy, math and science.
Exploring Your Natural World: Ex;lor, learn how to care for and interact with the outdoor world. Build bird feeders, learn how to identify wild life and more.
November 18th Culture Night


Questions regarding Open Schoolhouse can be sent to Josh Miller at [email protected] or Pat Smith at [email protected].

Girls on the Run founder, Molly Barker, is coming to Leopold!  
This year marks Girls on the Run of Dane County's 10th Anniversary and Molly Barker is coming to help us celebrate.  She will be arriving in Madison on Thursday, November 6th and will be visiting our practice before heading downtown for a presentation.  Molly will be arriving at Leopold in time for our final practice session from 2:45 - 4:15.  She will also be in attendance at the GOTR final 5K on Saturday, November 8th in Waunakee. We are so excited about this wonderful opportunity for our girls and coaches! 

Molly Barker founded Girls on the Run in 1996 in Charlotte, North Carolina. A four-time Hawaii Ironman triathlete, she used her background in social work, counseling and teaching, along with research on adolescent issues, to develop the program. Today, there are Girls on the Run councils in over 210 cities across North America serving over 200,000 girls and women each year. 

Communication
This weekly email is prepared in English and will be posted in both English and Spanish on our blog each week (http://www.leopoldpfo.org/ leopold-pfo-blog ).

Este correo electrónico semanal se prepara en Inglés y será publicada en Inglés y Español en nuestro blog cada semana (http://www.leopoldpfo. org/leopold-pfo-blog ).
Have a great week! 


 

 Kris
 

--

Kris Aman, President

Leopold Parent Faculty Organization

Encouraging Kids. Connecting Families. Serving Leopold.

Welcome back, Leopold families, from an extended winter break. After 18 days away from school, it's definitely time to get back to routine!

Timberwolf Trample Key Roles
In the next week or so, you will see a flyer come home with your student asking all parents to consider volunteering for one of two key positions for our Timberwolf Trample fundraiser. We are very much in need of an overall event chair and a fundraising chair. These two important roles are needed so that we can begin work on this wonderful annual event. The event normally generates around $10,000 for our school, so without it, we will definitely feel the pinch!

Grade Level Grants
Speaking of fundraising, if you've ever wondered how the PFO spends some of our money, a key expenditure in our budget is our annual Grade Level Grants to teachers. This year, each grade was given $1,000 to purchase items of their choice. Sometimes items are purchased for an entire grade, and sometimes teachers choose to divide up the money for individual classroom needs. We are currently in the process of purchasing the items from teacher lists, and working with the school to purchase some of the requests for classroom supplies that came through on our list. This year, the PFO went through the many books teachers requested, compared prices from various online stores, and saved about $150 ordering many of the books through amazon.com (plus we get back a percentage of the sales through our online ad!). We want you to know we spend the PFO's money wisely and do what we can to get great resources in each classroom!

School Directory
Our school directory is now complete, and for the first time it is posted online, on a password-protected page. You can visit www.leopoldpfo.org and click on "Leopold Elementary School Directory" and then enter the password: 2602PostRoad (note the caps and no spaces). This will allow you to access the directory from wherever you are, and will saves the PFO significant printing costs.

Middle School Transition Meeting
If you are the parent of a current 5th grader, mark your calendar for Tuesday, February 12, at 7 p.m. We will be hosting Cherokee principal, Dave Watkins and James C. Wright principal Angie Crawford, who will each give an overview of their schools. COPS officer Tom Gross from the Madison Police Department, as well as a parent panel, will be available for questions you have as we prepare for this important transition.

Thanks everyone. Have a great week back!